The Bruins-Canadiens rivalry is a tad dormant at the moment due to the Habs’ long-term rebuild. But if a player was going to make his debut with either team, then Thursday’s tilt at the Bell Centre will be as good a place to start as any.
Coach Jim Montgomery confirmed that Andrew Peeke, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets at last week’s trade deadline, will indeed be in the lineup for the first time as the B’s try to get on the winning track against the Habs.
“I’ve watched those (B’s-Habs games) for a long time now. No matter who’s playing at the Bell Centre, it’s a special place. But playing for the Bruins against them is going to juice it up a little bit more,” said Peeke after Wednesday’s practice before the B’s jetted north.
There will be a couple of different defense pairings on display in Montreal. Matt Grzelcyk will not travel to Montreal due to illness, so Mason Lohrei was skating on a top pairing with Charlie McAvoy while Peeke skated with Parker Wotherspoon on a third pair. Kevin Shattenkirk appears to be headed for a scratch.
“We’re going to see a lot of different pairings coming here,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “We’re trying to tinker and see what gives us the best option come playoff time.”
The coach is looking forward to see Peeke get his feet wet and what kind of look he can give the B’s.
“Obviously, he doesn’t know our complete structure. We showed him him video but he’s got to go out and apply it,” said Montgomery. “The good thing is, having talked to him, is that there are a lot of similarities with the way they played in Columbus and the way we play, so hopefully we’ll just see him play on his toes, bring some physicality to our lineup and some mobility on the back end.”
After being a regular defenseman for the Jackets the previous two season, playing 82 and then 80 games, Peeke had fallen out of favor this year. He’s played just 23 games this year. He played in three games leading up to the trade deadline, but was sat out for a month’s worth of games before that. With two more years left on his deal, he has an opportunity to jumpstart his career. Likewise, the B’s could certainly use a right-shot defenseman to step up considering that, after McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, they’re thin at that spot going forward.
“It was going a little long in Columbus this year. There’s a bunch of different ways to look at it. I’m excited to be coming here. Just being able to put the Bruins’ jersey on and coming to a new team, a playoff team and a winning culture, that’s exciting,” said Peeke.
Meanwhile, Peeke has been getting acclimated to Boston since he first arrived last Friday night.
“Everything comes at you pretty quick here,” said Peeke. “But I’ve always loved Boston. My Mom lived here for a little bit, my family lived here and I’ve visited here many times as a kid playing hockey. It’s a little different than Columbus in terms of traffic and all the one-ways and little things like that driving, but I know I’ll get adjusted pretty quickly.”….
James van Riemsdyk was suffering through an illness as well but Montgomery said he will travel with the team. Just in case he’s unavailable on Thursday, the B’s recalled John Beecher from Providence on an emergency basis.
Beecher had played his last game for Boston on January 13 before being sent to Providence. He had made the varsity roster out of camp and played 39 games with the B’s (5-2-7 totals) before being sent down to Providence.
The message from the coaching staff then?
“Just go down, work on some consistency and build my game,” said Beecher. “Everyone knows what I have to do to help the team win and help the team in a playoff push. I’m well aware of that as well. So it was just working on bringing that each and every night and gaining consistency and a little bit of confidence in my game moving forward. I feel like over the past two, three weeks especially, we’ve been playing a lot on the weekends and I feel like my consistency is definitely starting to come through and starting to string some games together. I’m happy about that.”
In Wednesday’s practice, he skated as the left wing on a fourth line with Jesper Boqvist and Jakub Lauko while Justin Brazeau bumped up to the third line.
Whether or not he gets in Thursday’s game, Beecher could certainly help the B’s in the faceoff department. Though he’d slipped in draws before being sent down, he still held a 53.9% win percentage. Beecher has also played some wing in Providence
“Just trying to add a little bit of versatility to my game,” said Beecher. “I’ve never minded playing wing. I’d take the faceoffs on my strong side and I had (Patrick Brown) up the middle with me, so we were able to have a bunch of success. It was fun. A little less responsibility in the D-zone so it was kind of nice to go out there and fly around a little bit. It was just something the coaching staff down there wanted me to work on just in case an opportunity presented itself up here.”
Montgomery received a promising report on Beecher.
“What we heard is that he kept getting better and better, he kept showing that he’s fighting for a spot to get back up here, which why he’s been the guy who was recalled in an emergency situation,” said Montgomery….
There is still no target date for Patrick Maroon’s Bruin debut. Though he said he had started skating while still in Minnesota and felt he wasn’t too far off from returning from February 7 back surgery, he is not skating now and Montgomery termed him week-to-week. There are just over four weeks left in the regular season.
“If we’re not (having him skate), then it’s because (manager of player rehabilitation) Scotty Waugh and the professionals we have think the best thing is to gradually bring him back on to the ice,” said Montgomery.
